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Saturday, October 20, 2012

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Can’t Have Secrets and Seek Billion Dollar Damages at the Same Time

Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) has been constantly defending its patents and trademarks
under lawsuits that span several countries. Due to these factors, financial
information about its devices has been kept tightly under wraps of
which Samsung Electronics accused patent infringements.

Some weeks back, Apple had landed a trademark victory and was
paid $1 billion as damaged by Samsung. The verdict was deliberated by a jury
who declared that Samsung had in fact, infringed several patents by Apple. But
with Apple asking Judge Lucy Koh to triple the jury award citing grounds of
willful infringement by Samsung, Koh, has clearly stated that financial records
of the company will have to be made public.

Apple had requested Koh not to reveal the information, but
she had denied the requested and insisted the records to be presented in court because
financial data is from publicly traded companies is often available for
investors, analysts, and others for examination. Apparently, the company
records of Apple contain detailed analysis of the models that come under the
patent infringement category such as profit margin, units, revenue, profits and
cost data and it is important for trade secrecy to be maintained.

Koh remains firm in her stand – she said that a company can’t
claim multi-billion dollar damages based on certain data and still keep it a
secret. But the data would be revealed only after the U.S. District Court of
Appeals processes Apple’s request for appealing the decision.